Natwarlal (born Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava; 1912 — 25 July 2009) was an Indian fraudster known for his high-profile crimes and prison escapes, including having supposedly repeatedly "sold" the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and the Parliament House of India.

Natwarlal was born Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava in the village of Bangra in the Siwan district of Bihar.

Fleeing to Calcutta, Natwarlal enrolled as a student for a bachelor of commerce degree while working as a casual stock broker.

[1] As Natwarlal's father was a station master, he knew information about the railway freight industry in India.

Likewise, his bachelor of commerce degree and his stint as a stock broker gave him the knowledge of banking rules.

According to police, he would visit prostitutes regularly, give them tainted liquor, steal their jewellery and money, and escape.

[4] Natwarlal is said to have duped hundreds of shop owners, jewellers, bankers, and foreigners of lakhs of rupees, using more than fifty aliases to disguise himself.

He often used novel ideas to cheat people, such as one instance in the 1950s where he swindled the Punjab National Bank out of 6.5 lakhs of rupees in a scam involving rail freight and bags of rice.

[1][2] He is said to have supposedly cheated a number of industrialists including the Tatas, the Birlas, and Dhirubhai Ambani, taking from them huge sums of money.

[4] Natwarlal's high-profile crimes often got him major sentences, with his jail time reaching increasingly high numbers.

[4][10] A crime television programme based on Natwarlal's life, Jurm, was aired in 2004 by Aaj Tak.